Jesse Maylee was voted acting mayor pro tem by the Wellsville City Council during a meeting on Nov. 16.

Maylee will serve the remainder of the term left vacant by the resignation of Mayor Dena Saak. Saak stepped down as mayor on Nov. 29 after 19 months in office.

“I’m going to be in that position until April,” Maylee said. “Then, the election will happen and the cards will fall where they may. But I’m not applying for the mayor’s position. I don’t have time for that. I work full time, I have my family here at home and I have another part-time job. My hands are pretty full.”

Maylee is also the current Ward I Alderman. He’s part of a City Council that includes Aldermen Richard Wilson and Tom Mayes. The next city council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Dec. 21 at Wellsville City Hall.

“I think we’ll get along for the most part,” Maylee said. “I’m picking up the pieces as they come along where Dena left off at, where somebody will come and contact the city and want something done. So I’ll reach out to them, take notes on everything and put it on the agenda for that month’s meeting.”

Saak became Wellsville’s new mayor on April 21, 2021 after beating Howard Steele – who served as the city’s mayor for 18 years – by 29 votes in the election. Maylee said the first time he talked to Saak was when she was running for mayor.

“I wrote down about 60 questions on a piece of paper because there were a lot of rumors floating around,” Maylee said. “You know how it is with a mayor in a small town. I put her number on a little flyer she was passing around. I called her and asked her the questions I had. She answered them all.”

Maylee got to talk to Saak again a year later.

“I came in from work and she called me, telling me they needed an alderman,” Maylee said. “I was like, ‘OK.’ Then, she kind of explained to me what an alderman was. Within a year, I went from that to being a liaison for the police department here in town. From there, I became mayor pro tem in case Dena resigned. About two weeks later, I was voted as that as Dena resigned. So I got put into the mayor pro tem position.”

The 32-year-old Maylee has lived in Wellsville for most of his life. He graduated from Wellsville-Middletown High School in 2009. Maylee moved to Mexico when he was 18 years old, but later returned to Wellsville. He currently works at Mike’s AutoCrafts in Montgomery City.